Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 01:34 PM Jun 2015

Do Some Social Justice Advocates Go Too Far?

This is from an article from medium.com posted by Aristotelis Orginos. More at the link:
https://medium.com/@aristoNYC/social-justice-bullies-the-authoritarianism-of-millennial-social-justice-6bdb5ad3c9d3

Let me finally be abundantly, abundantly clear. Social justice and social justice advocacy is a good thing. To utilize one’s education to solve social ills is an admirable goal.

However,
 in attempting to solve pressing and important social issues, millennial social justice advocates are violently sabotaging genuine opportunities for progress by infecting a liberal political narrative with, ironically, hate.

The version of millennial social justice advocacy  one that uses Identity Politics to balkanize groups of people, engenders hatred between groups, willingly lies to push agendas, manipulates language to provide immunity from criticism, and that publicly shames anyone who remotely speaks some sort of dissent from the overarching narrative of the orthodoxy — is not admirable. It is deplorable. It appeals to the basest of human instincts: fear and hatred. It is not an enlightened or educated position to take. History will not look kindly on this Orwellian, authoritarian pervision of social justice that has taken social media and millennials by storm over the past few years.

But the fact of the matter is — anyone unwilling to engage in productive, open, mutually critical conversations with people they disagree with under the moral protection of liberalism and social justice are not liberals, are not social justice advocates, and are not social justice warriors; they are social justice bullies.


Emphasis in bold added

This is an interesting article and not directed at anyone in DU.
26 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Do Some Social Justice Advocates Go Too Far? (Original Post) rhett o rick Jun 2015 OP
Some people go too far. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jun 2015 #1
I'm heartily sick of the Social Justice Warriors on DU, that's for sure Warpy Jun 2015 #2
Thanks for the post. I am probably near your age because I have seen rhett o rick Jun 2015 #6
Hey Warpy.. 2banon Jun 2015 #15
The Two Minute Hate is popular with a certain crowd. Maedhros Jun 2015 #3
+1 nt MannyGoldstein Jun 2015 #7
I think it's more than that. I think it's used to promote an agenda. The liberal agenda is rhett o rick Jun 2015 #9
So many posters have nothing to contribute other than vitriol and mockery, Maedhros Jun 2015 #10
I think it's a self-righteous mob mentality. nm rhett o rick Jun 2015 #19
Middle School Playground mentality. [n/t] Maedhros Jun 2015 #20
yep! rhett o rick Jun 2015 #21
I think I agree with this passiveporcupine Aug 2015 #23
How do we define "social justice"? kentuck Jun 2015 #4
Some people try to separate social justice from economic justice. This is wrong. rhett o rick Jun 2015 #5
The reason for that is obvious. It is in the interests of those in power to keep the people divided sabrina 1 Jun 2015 #8
Social justice is directly connected to economic justice IMO. L0oniX Jun 2015 #11
I think that's obvious. But the Third Way wants to seperate them because rhett o rick Jun 2015 #12
The Third way may have some racist tendencies as well. L0oniX Jun 2015 #13
I don't know specifically about racism in the Third Way, but I believe the Plutocratic-Oligarchs rhett o rick Jun 2015 #14
Right, lip service to social justice and ignoring economic justice. 2banon Jun 2015 #17
that's my view too. 2banon Jun 2015 #18
Yes, Socio-Economic Justice 2banon Jun 2015 #16
Yeah, I tried to point that out and got slammed Warpy Jun 2015 #22
But: It is harder to have social injustice in the face of economic justice, but it's NOT impossible. merrily Aug 2015 #24
This article complains about identity politics and balkanization of certain groups, then merrily Aug 2015 #25
Yes. Real change is made by forging coalitions among demographics. Smarmie Doofus Aug 2015 #26

Erich Bloodaxe BSN

(14,733 posts)
1. Some people go too far.
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 01:44 PM
Jun 2015

That sort of behaviour isn't anything unique to advocates for social justice or any other agenda.

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
2. I'm heartily sick of the Social Justice Warriors on DU, that's for sure
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 02:22 PM
Jun 2015

Look, people, I'm old, really old, old enough to remember when "retarded" was the polite word that took the place of the pejorative "stupid," applied to children who were having a lot of trouble with school work. It was the first step on the way to differentiating things like dyslexia, autism, and other barriers to learning. It's only a pejorative to people who feel guilty for using it as such in middle school. Grow up.

I'm old enough to remember a lot of other words in colloquial English that were shorthand for groups of people that the SJWs on DU consider horrible, life threatening pejoratives.

I also notice these great warriors against colloquial English are always offended on the behalf of someone else who hasn't said s/he is offended, the SJWs apparently considering themselves the untiring champions of people out there who are just too stupid to know they've been mocked. I can tell them as a native born Florida Cracker, I am more offended by that than I am the word "cracker."

Now there are a few words that truly do offend people and I do avoid using them, calling people what they prefer to be called, which is usually their names.

Now I've used enough words in this post to give most of them serious cases of the Victorian Bowdlerist swoons and I am sure this post will be hidden. Go ahead, do your worst, some hides are definitely worth it, especially when they tend to increase readership.

Just realize that some day, when you are an elder, your language will be criticized by the young who think that the easy job of making war on words is vastly preferable to getting down in the mud to make war on real injustice.

That is all.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
6. Thanks for the post. I am probably near your age because I have seen
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 04:16 PM
Jun 2015

the same changes. I see that there are two problems. One is that some liberals go too far to accommodate under represented groups to a fault. In fact to the point of condescension . The other problem is that some self-righteous persons see the opportunity to wield power under the banner of social justice, as the article discusses.

By the way, this OP is not intended to complain about the recent banning.

 

2banon

(7,321 posts)
15. Hey Warpy..
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 09:28 PM
Jun 2015

we know each other in the craft forum I think.

Yes, I too am of that certain age.

From my observations in various activism capacities, Identity Politics is ultimately inserted, disrupting process, ability to go forward on decision making, and too frequently stifling efforts to ultimately achieve the desired goal..

In a word, they're Social Justice movement busters. -(destroyers).



 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
9. I think it's more than that. I think it's used to promote an agenda. The liberal agenda is
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 06:35 PM
Jun 2015

to let people talk and discuss, while the conservative agenda is to try to stifle all speech that doesn't conform to their world view.

 

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)
10. So many posters have nothing to contribute other than vitriol and mockery,
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 06:48 PM
Jun 2015

and there are definitely coordinated groups of such individuals who descend on posts that display Wrong Thinking. However, I have to believe that a reasonable chunk of those people are simply engaging in a tribal impulse to join "Us" in seething against "Them."

kentuck

(112,650 posts)
4. How do we define "social justice"?
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 03:21 PM
Jun 2015

If poverty is ignored or permitted to grow, is that a "social justice"?

To me, "social justice" has a very broad meaning.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
5. Some people try to separate social justice from economic justice. This is wrong.
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 03:38 PM
Jun 2015

You cant have social justice without economic justice.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
8. The reason for that is obvious. It is in the interests of those in power to keep the people divided
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 05:48 PM
Jun 2015

To talk about the reality of class warfare could cause the unthinkable, people uniting AGAINST those who are responsible for the economic inequality that exists in this country today.

It would mean not having those 'weapons' to use in elections eg.

People with an agenda, they will always exist, too much attention is paid to them. Here, all we have to do is ignore them.

And btw, Bernie is right! Why anyone would want to deny AAs the same economic opportunities as white people is beyond me, or deny that poverty isn't a factor in how people are treated in society. But as I said, that would remove the divisiveness, cause people to unite, and we can't have that.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
12. I think that's obvious. But the Third Way wants to seperate them because
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 07:36 PM
Jun 2015

they are willing to concede some social justice changes to placate the naive.

 

L0oniX

(31,493 posts)
13. The Third way may have some racist tendencies as well.
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 07:52 PM
Jun 2015

Saw this PBS report about the new or more well known now white crack and meth dealers. It was made clear that given the same social economic environment there would be no differences because of race. When people are desperately poor with no hope of climbing the economic latter that not all but many will divert to drugs ...both selling and using.

 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
14. I don't know specifically about racism in the Third Way, but I believe the Plutocratic-Oligarchs
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 08:09 PM
Jun 2015

are not racist but use racism to further their goals of gaining wealth.

 

2banon

(7,321 posts)
16. Yes, Socio-Economic Justice
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 09:31 PM
Jun 2015

hardly ever said, but for reasons I cannot understand, class analysis is too often omitted in the equation/formula of social justice.

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
22. Yeah, I tried to point that out and got slammed
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 06:56 AM
Jun 2015

by a couple of bizarros who didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
24. But: It is harder to have social injustice in the face of economic justice, but it's NOT impossible.
Sun Aug 30, 2015, 06:23 AM
Aug 2015

As a woman, I've been a victim of economic injustice of various kinds. However, no one crossed the street or moved out of a neighborhood when he or she saw me (or me and my kid) coming. I've never worried about having a cross burned on my lawn or a swastika painted on my kid's school locker or my grandparents' grave stone. I've never worried about a cop shooting my child for brandishing a toy gun or manhandling my daughter for swimming at the wrong pool.

So, while there is a large correlation between social justice and economic justice, those two circles are not concentric.

I understand the tension, given the Sanders campaign. But we cannot focus solely on the place where the two circles intersect and overlook the places whether the two circles do not overlap much, if at all. At the same time, I don't think Sanders does that.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
25. This article complains about identity politics and balkanization of certain groups, then
Sun Aug 30, 2015, 06:51 AM
Aug 2015

proceeds to balkanize Millennials.

I read quite several paragraphs before I got to any specific complaitn, namely:


Because, at the behest of millennial social justice advocates, we are told not to question rape victims. To do so is “victim blaming” and can potentially “re-traumatize” the victim.


This is totally false. Victim shaming is blaming the victim for the rape, not merely questioning the victim about what happened. The publication in question engaged in bad journalism and has admitted that. Good journalism would not have required victim shaming, but journalistic investigation. The publication did not even do the very minimum, namely seeking a comment from the accused. Being respectful to someone who claims to have been raped is not an excuse for bad journalism and good journalism does not require asking a rape victim how much cleavage she was displaying to the rapist before the rape.



Much of this rhetoric comes from the idea that there is a pervasive rape culture on campuses nationwide that must be stamped out;


Um, like the Senior Salute that's been in media recently? What's your point, again?



more systemically, there are socially-endorsed and institutionally-endorsed modes of patriarchy that continually oppress women.


And there aren't? Are you kidding me?

Trans vaginal probes, denial of insurance coverage, denial of control over one's body, absence of female priests in the Catholic Church and very few in any church, "women, be obedient to your husbands," etc. Denying the existence of socially endorsed and institutionally endorsed modes of patriarchy intended to oppress women seems borderline insane to me.

The ideas purported in the quote above seek to remedy that under the name of social justice. But in what world are these statements liberal, let alone in accordance with social justice?


How is it NOT social justice or NOT liberal to seek to remedy socially endorsed and institutionally endorsed modes of patriarchy?

The mantra of the movement is thus: It is impossible to be racist against white people because racism is the equivalent of prejudice and power. Since white people have social and economic institutional power and privilege (in America), those who are racially oppressed cannot be racist toward whites since those who are racially oppressed do not have power.


Here, I agree somewhat with the author. IMO, when you say white people are racist shits, that is a broad brush statement condemning a large group of people based on nothing but skin color and that is a racist statement. However, I am often, but not always, willing to suck it up because I've never had to put up with what people who don't look white have had to put up with. A broad brush statement is not the equivalent of worrying myself into an early grave because my kid might not make it home from school.

Besides, it is not only Millennial women or Millennial people of color who hold the views to which he objects, another example of broad brushing almost always being false.

It may be that some things go too far, but I don't think this article makes the case well, if at all. On the other hand, I "hear" in this article a white male wanting to seem like a victim of society and also "hear" him painting Millennials with the same broad brush he is objecting to. For me, that's a no sale as to this article and author.
 

Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
26. Yes. Real change is made by forging coalitions among demographics.
Sun Aug 30, 2015, 07:34 AM
Aug 2015

And ... yes....sorry: that includes with men, whites and heterosexuals.

The rest is just narcissistic, crybaby nonsense.

If we wanna keep *losing* ( for example, the House.... the Senate.... the state legislatures and , next year, probably, the presidency)

we will keep working to make the Democratic Party the exclusive preserve of politically correct, perpetually aggrieved, relentlessly angry,
insular gaggles of self-appointed elite reps of historically marginalized minority groups.

Let's keep it up! It's really working well!

That's *IF* we want to keep losing.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»Populist Reform of the Democratic Party»Do Some Social Justice Ad...